we spent a lot of time with congressman jim cooper. he describes the democratic policy committee, the early part of congress -- there were talking about should we do this, what would they think? what is the right thing to do with the democratic values. today, the question is how -- have you met your quota? have you raise the amount of money you need to raise. if you want to the committee chair, you have to do your job. you have to make sure you raised the right amount of money. >> in the back, you list a whole bunch of websites. i am sorry, it is about the author. it talks about how you served on a board. map light, money and politics, building technology, making it easier to see the relationship between money and politics. that is a foundation set up to fund some production of films by robert greenwald. >> a wide range of issues including progressives and the others from the conservative. >> did he do the fox? >> yes. >> change congress. >> that was an organization i started with joe. it was an organization trying to focus reform effo

we beat a lot of the blue dog democrats, but there are some jim cooper types still there. so i see some of these democrats there. >> be more specific. when ronald reagan came into office and he had to pass a budget that was also controversial, he could not do it with republican ves. he found roughly 60 -- is there a 60-vote caucus? >> no, but we don't need that. we still prettgood about the senate. you can never take these things for granted, but what i am saying is, i think there are intellectuals in the democratic party who are the centrist talks. they more agree with us on the nature of these things and then the progressives, but the progressive run the party, and if they are in the majority, they call the shots. if we can get the majority, then what we need to do is work with those centrist democrats to put together a coalition to fix this. >> just to play devil's advocate here, i you want to draw those kinds of people into this exercise, don't you have to make some move in their direction on revenues? >> is it really feasible to think in the political system have toda

. -- you talk to some congressman -- i spent time with jim cooper, who has been in congress as long as 20 other members. he describes the democratic policy committee -- they would get together, they would talk about politics. they would talk about, should we do this? what would labor think? what with the banks think? what is the right thing to do? that committee gets together and the question is, have you raised your quota? have you met your mother of money? if you have not, certain perks that are given out by a leadership is not given to you. you want to be a committee chair? you have to do your job. your job is to make sure you have raised the right amount of money. in the bat, under acknowledgments, you list a whole bunch of -- you say, it is about the author. you talk about you also served on the board. math lite, what is that? >> we are building technology to make it easier to see the relationship between money and politics? >> what is the film foundation? >> that was set up to fund the production of films on the afghanistan war, on a wide range of issues, some progressive, some a

we beat a lot of the blue dog democrats, but there are some jim cooper types still there. so i see some of these democrats there. >> be more specific. en ronald reagan came into office and he had to pass a budget that was also controversial, he could not do it with republican votes. he found roughly 60 -- is there a 60-vote caucus? >> no, but we don'need that. we still pretty good about the senate. you can never take these things for granted, but what i am saying is, i think there are intellectuals in the democratic party who are the centrist talks. they more agree with us on the nature of these things and then the progressives, but the progressive run the party, and if they are in the majority, they call the shots. if we can get the majority, then what we need to do is work with those centrist democrats to put together a coalition to fix this. >> just to play devil's advocate he, if you want to draw those kinds of people into this exercise, don't you have to make some movin their direction on revenues? >> is it really feasible to ink in the political system haveoday that

a farm league for k street as jim cooper fm tennessee describes it.o they don't want to change a system where lobbyists won't be as valuable. >> rose: what happened to mccain-feingold? >> so it's effectively dead. there's some parts that still survive but its strategy was different. its strategy was to say there's certain kinds of money we don't like, let's dampen it down. that's been th strategy of reform for the past 30 years. my view is that's just never going to be enough. you'reever going to succeed by silencing certain speech in this system. they find a way to getheir influence back in. instead we have to find a solution to add more speech into the system, more money into the system but money that isn't distorted in the way we think big money is. >> rose: so your democracy voucher... >> that's one way. right. >> rose: what relation you working on when you try to deal with the idea of the way the american political system works? >> well, i think the hardest pa of this problem right now... so the first one was what's the rightanswer. the second on

i especially want to thank peter defazio and jim cooper, but many members, the blue dogs have endorsed this balanced budget amendment. but it is necessary to have a bipartisan approach to this. and you know what? this is a bipartisan problem. there have been republican presidents and democratic presidents, republican congresses and democratic congresses that have contributed to those 44 years when we've run deficits. so now today we come and ask for a bipartisan solution to this problem, a solution that depending upon the poll 75% to 80% of the american people support. congress continues to prove it cannot make the tough decisions on its own. the budget has only been balanced six times in 50 years. the american people know what it means to balance their budget. they are surprised that the congress does not have this requirement. state governments do. 49 out of 50 states, most of which have it in their constitutions. local governments have to balance their budgets. families and businesses have to live within their means and they can't go more than a few years without living within their

joining me now, democratic congressman jim cooper of tennessee and republican congressman read ribblen. welcome, gentlemen. >> good morning, carol. >> good morning, carol. >> good morning. thank you for being here. it is nice to see a republican and democrat together and talking. so you have written a letter, you have about 100 members signed up in support of this letter. so tell us what the 100 lawmakers have agreed to and give us an idea how many democrats and how many republicans you've signed up, representative cooper. >> we're asking the super committee to be brave, to do the right thing for america. if they do that, we've got their backs. basically we want everything on the table. >> you say be brave. so representative ribble, what does that mean, be brave, have courage? >> i think for us, we want the super committee to feel empowered to go much larger than 1.5 trillion. if we look at $1.5 trillion in the course of a decade, that's only reducing spending about 2.7%. if they could go to 4 trillion, now we are at 9.5%. and we're encouraging them to do so and lead with courage. >>

jim cooper, george miller, democrat of california. guest: this is the aspen institute.s really interesting. i don't like to admit this normally in the air. i am still digging into this one. they provide travel to members of congress to talk about important issues. for instance, they had an energy summit. ok. energy san important issue. talk about coal and clean coal. it took like a dozen members of congress in february to puerto rico to talk about energy. well, why there? largely because that's where members would like to go in february. the schedule is morning meetings and then in the afternoon not much. so what are they doing, hanging out on the beach? again, it is one thing to say, we are going to bring members to a meeting to talk about an important topic or issue of focus but, you know, nobody ever goes to detroit. nobody ever goes to pittsburgh. they go to vienna or they go to san juan. how come? well, largely because that's where members want to go. host: let's talk about the numbers. congressman cooper, $47,000. congress plan miller, $46,000. also above -- congr

i especially want to thank peter defazio and jim cooper, but many members, the blue dogs have endorsed this balanced budget amendment. but it is necessary to have a bipartisan approach to this. and you know what? this is a bipartisan problem. there have been republican presidents and democratic presidents, republican congresses and democratic congresses that have contributed to those 44 years when we've run deficits. so now today we come and ask for a bipartisan solution to this problem, a solution that depending upon the poll 75% to 80% of the american people support. congress continues to prove it cannot make the tough decisions on its own. the budget has only been balanced six times in 50 years. the american people know what it means to balance their budget. they are surprised that the congress does not have this requirement. state governments do. 49 out of 50 states, most of which have it in their constitutions. local governments have to balance their budgets. families and businesses have to live within their means and they can't go more than a few years without living within their

we beat a lot of the blue dog democrats, but there are some jim cooper types still there. so i see some of these democrats there. >> be more specific. when ronald reagan came into office and he had to pass a budget that was also controversial, he could not do it with republican votes. he found roughly 60 -- is there a 60-vote caucus? >> no, but we don't need that. we still pretty good about the senate. you can never take these things for granted, but what i am saying is, i think there are intellectuals in the democratic party who are the centrist talks. they more agree with us on the nature of these things and then the progressives, but the progressive run the party, and if they are in the majority, they call the shots. if we can get the majority, then what we need to do is work with those centrist democrats to put together a coalition to fix this. >> just to play devil's advocate here, if you want to draw those kinds of people into this exercise, don't you have to make some move in their direction on revenues? >> is it really feasible to think in the political system have

congressman jim cooper, a democratic-tennessee. congressman george miller, a democratic-california. >> both of those are aspen trips. this is the aspen institute. i am still looking into it. i do not like to admit this normally on the air, but i am still digging into this. they provide travel to members of congress to talk about important issues. for instance, they had an energy summit. ok, cold, clean coal. it took like a dozen members of congress in the rate to puerto rico to talk about energy. why there? largely because that is where members would like to go in february. the schedule is it -- essentially morning meetings and in the afternoon, not much. so what are they, hanging out on the beach? it is one thing to bring members to a meeting to talk about an important topic or issue or focus, but nobody ever goes to detroit. nobody ever does to pittsburgh. they go to vienna or they go to san juan. how come? well, that is our members want to go. host: congressman cooper, $47,000. congressman miller, $46,000. also above the $40,000

. >> yes, thank you, jim michael, consultant and development cooperation with a principle focus on rule of law. it seems to me that this top-down, really related to the previous question, i think, has to interact with a civil society that has some values of things like equality of treatment, a belief that the institutions of governance and justice can make a positive difference for the society, and where you have the different groups contending and competing an acceptance of the idea that if you're east bank, you are treated differently than if you're west bank. if you're a woman, you get treated different than if you're a man, and these divisions in the society and skepticism i found in my talking to people in the region, the skepticism about whether the reforms are modernization or really transformational changes in the society, and i'd like to hear from the panelists about how you see engaging several society. some of them reforms, like the constitutional process have not been very transparent or pa tis pi story. how does a civic culture that's going to encourage and further a reform

jim michael. i'm a consultant and development cooperation with the principle focus on rule of law.it seems to me that this top-down and it's really related to the previous question has to interact with the civil society that has some values as things like equality of treatment, a belief that the institutions of governance and justice can make a positive difference for the society and where you have the different groups contending and competing in acceptance of the idea that if you're east and you get different trigger the then if your west bank. if your woman you be treated differently than a man. and these kinds of decisions in the society and the skepticism i have found him talking to people of the region come a skepticism about whether these reforms are modernization or whether they are really transformational changes in the society. as a junior from panelists about how you see engaging civil society but the constitutional process have not been transparent or participatory. have a civil society and a civic culture that is going to encourage a further reform process going to deve

jim? >> beverly johnson. boy, can natalie blow a kiss on the cat walk. she looked beautiful. >>> people magazine announced this year's sexiest man alive. >> who is the sexiest man alive? >> bradley cooper. >> is that a drum roll or what? you may have seen bradley cooper in "hangover" movies. he thought he was being punked. humility is what led to give him the honor in the first place. he came to d.c. for college. he's a georgetown university. two surprises, the funny men of "saturday night live" made a list as a single entity. look who that is. last but not least, nbc "nightly news" anchor, brian williams has been named sexy, folks. people editors say he is the perfect combination. he can deliver serious news and also make you laugh. she's getting grief up at 30 rock today. justin bieber is off the hook today. the paternity lawsuit has been dismissed. she dropped the lawsuit late last week. her attorney says she feared for her life and hoped to settle the dispute confidently. she claims she slept the bieber when he was 16 and she was 19 could have faced statutory rape charges. bieber agreed to take a dna test and vowed to sue her. >>> coming up on news 4 at 4:00, they have been booted

jim stennen brenner. it was a bipartisan effort because we exhausted all other avenues for obtaining the information from the bush administration first. that has not happened here. the obama administration has been cooperating with the committee and has said it would continue to do so. the white house just yesterday offered to share internal white house emails on all issues that are being debated about the solyndra loan guarantee. by contrast, what my subpoena was, it was just two documents. one of these had been attached to a single email that epa sent or that the white house never even opened. the bush administration white house didn't just refuse to provide them voluntarily, they refused to comply with the subpoena at all until the select committee scheduled a business meeting to consider a contempt motion. this committee should accept the accommodation offer the white house made. subpoenas should be the last resort used to obtain information when the subject of an inquiry has failed to fully cooperate. in stark contrast to today's deal for issuing subpoenas to the white house, yesterday, republicans were singing a very different tune. over in the natural resources committee, 100 yards away, republicans